Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Nation to develop 2.5 mln hectares land through irrigation
Ministry Public Relations Bureau Head, Tarekegn Tsige, told WIC that some 200 million quintals ofagriculturaloutput will be reaped from the irrigation development. He said the irrigation development will be carried out in all states across the nation, including Benshangul Gumuz and Somali states. He said all states are undertaking various activities for the successful realization of the irrigation development since last August. Some 300,000 tonnes of fertilizer and select seed have already been readied for the irrigation development, he said, adding various fruits, vegetables, maize and cereals will be developed. Tarekegn urged leaderships at all level to discharge their responsibilities for the success of the irrigation development. The government has paid prime attention to irrigation development so as to ensure food security and enhance foreign currency from the agriculture sector. | |
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 December 2009 ) |
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Tedy Afro Shemendefer-lyric
by Teddy Afro; Translation by HFGK, 2006
Azaan, the mosque’s chanting is heralding daybreak;
I am heading for the station, the early train to take.
By chance, she came to Harar[2] – a rare guest from Shegerr;[3]
And back to a distant land, she took my heart with her.
And yet – do you forget?
The age-old haven Our Ethiopia has been;
Where Muslims and Christians have long lived in love, as kin.
My house is ample for us both.
Boundless love will be our oath.
You firm in your faith, and I in mine;
We’ll share my humble home, unconfined.
Shemendefer…
The Creator crafted you with such beauty untold;
Not without fear of Allah, to slay beholders cold.
Can you not understand when one loves you so?
Your answer to my love, neither yes nor no.
Oh yours is a beauty - a love, extraordinary,
Oh mercy, Heavens, Oh, hear me…!
Shemendefer - Take me to My Love, to Shegerr,
Make haste on the rails, Oh train!
As no longer can I bear this pain.
My home is Harar, my birthplace Qulubi; [4]
It was there you came to worship, there I happened to be.
And as sure as on that day you entered my heart;
If I live in faith each day, praying not to depart;
From the Saha Sitta and His Sacred Ten decrees;
My love for you, should not The Lord displease.
In Shegerr, Addis A’ba, your own home town, indeed;
Does Raguel Church not face Anwar Masjid?
Though parted by a mere mortal fence;
In concert to the skies their prayers rise, and hence;
Both the church’s Qidassie and the mosque’s Azaan,
The Creator hears them – in symphony – as one.
In Allah’s name I can still swear;
And you by Saint Qulubi’s prayer.
Come into my home, do come inside.
And leave your cord of faith firmly tied.
Oh, can you not see that I love you so
Your answer remains, neither yes nor no.
Oh yours is a beauty- a love, extraordinary,
Oh mercy, Heavens, Oh, hear me…!
Shemendefer - Take me to My Love, to Shegerr,
Make haste on the rails, Oh train!
As no longer, can I bear this pain.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Chicago Bears and Ethiopia,What do They Have in Common?
08 November 2009 |
The answer is, Michael McCaskey, the current Chairman and CEO of the Chicago Bears in the United States National Football League.
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| National Football League |
George Halas started the Chicago Bears in 1920. When he died in 1983 his oldest daughter Virginia McCaskey, took over as the majority owner of the team. Her husband, Ed McCaskey, succeeded her father as Chairman of the Board. It was at this time that their son Michael McCaskey was appointed president of the Chicago Bears. In 1999 Michael McCaskey was promoted to CEO, and Chairman of the board. He has been serving in that capacity ever since.
The Peace Corps years
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It is 1965. President John Kennedy’s call for public service is reverberating across America. Young people are volunteering by the thousands to serve. One of the young people at that time who heeded the call for service was Michael McCaskey.
He joined the Peace Corps fresh out of college. After doing research of different countries where the peace corps was in service McCaskey was very intrigued with Ethiopia. The beautiful country, long history and tradition, outstanding weather and people [that had great pride in what they had accomplished over hundreds of years] appealed to him.
In June of 1965 Michael McCaskey arrived in Ethiopia. He was assigned to a little town called Fitche (Fee-chay) located north of the capital Addis Ababa, right on the edge of the Rift Valley. For the next two years Fitche would be his home. This was the first time for McCaskey to live and work outside the United States. The school he was assigned to was named Asfa Wossen, and McCaskey started teaching 6, 7, and 8th graders, Science and English.
“My students were astounding, they were highly motivated. You’ve heard stories about students walking barefoot for 6 or 7 miles every day to go to school, and that fit my students,” McCaskey says. “My days as a teacher in Ethiopia changed my perspective on the rest of the world for which I am very grateful,” says McCaskey.
Community organizer
The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC) established in 1984, is a non-profit charitable organization committed to serving the cultural, psychological and socioeconomic needs of refugees and immigrants in and around metropolitan Chicago.
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| Skyline in the city of Chicago, the so-called 'Windy City' |
Shortly after the organization was founded its Executive Director and Co-founder Dr. Erku Yimer placed a call to the Chairman and CEO of the Chicago Bears, Michael McCaskey. “He had heard that I served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia,” McCaskey says. Yimer asked McCaskey if he would join the advisory board for the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago. At that time however, McCaskey was starting a new job as CEO of the Chicago Bears. “Give me a little bit of time and I would be happy to serve,” was McCaskey’s reply. A year later Yimer and McCaskey got together and according to McCaskey it has been a good association ever since.
Right away, McCaskey started exploring ways to help the Ethiopian community in Chicago grow and prosper. Working with Yimer, McCaskey helped start computer training and education program as well as help raise funds to get computers and classrooms. Yimer was also interested in starting an entrepreneurship training seminar. McCaskey and his wife were very receptive to the idea and immediately constructed a program for training. They brought in a very successful Ethiopian entrepreneur [who used to be McCaskey’s Amharic instructor in his Peace Corps days] to help.
“Out of that training program any number of businesses including several restaurants were started, and some of them are prospering today,” says McCaskey.
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This for McCaskey was one way of addressing the challenge of being under-employed. “In Chicago we have very well educated, hard working honest group of Ethiopians who are under-employed. They are working as parking lot attendants or in the service industry, and really they can and should be doing things that bring a better financial reward and more prestige in the community,” McCaskey says. “For the entrepreneurial inclined and are willing to take the risk of starting a restaurant, or a messenger service, or a jewelry outlet, all they need is some training, encouragement, and support and they can do very well thank you,” says McCaskey.
Give peace a chance
40 years later Michael McCaskey returned to Ethiopia. The year is 2005. War is about to break
(File Photo)" hspace="2" src="https://author.voanews.com/english/images/AFP_Eritrea_President_Issaias_Afeworki__Dec2000.jpg" width="191" vspace="2" border="0"> |
| Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki (File Photo) |
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| Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi, (file photo) |
“Ultimately we were not successful but I think it shows the spirit of the Peace Corps and the good will the Peace Corps had developed over the years, “says McCaskey. They were able to talk to both sides. It turns out the leaders of each country had been trained by Peace Corps volunteers and had a very good memory of them as teachers and people dedicated to try to improve the quality of life both in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
“Both men [Ethiopia’s Melese Zenawie and Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki] were very intelligent and dedicated to the well being of their own country. But they were stubborn on certain points. We could see it was a complex situation. There were huge forces in place that try as we may; our ability to push was limited. How do wars break out? Why do countries get into a fight with each other? It’s hard to understand,” laments McCaskey.
Amharic volleyball
“I played soccer and plenty of volleyball with my students in Fetchie,” remembers McCaskey of his years as a Peace Corps teacher in Ethiopia. “I learned to play volley ball in Amharic. After I left Ethiopia the next several years it was hard for me to play without giving out the call in Amharic,” says McCaskey.
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| Map of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea |
There are very few level places in Fitche so the thug- of -war competition between parents and the teachers was held on a slope in the field. “I assumed that we would be playing the thug-of-war pulling across the slope,” McCaskey says. That way neither side would have a particular advantage. That was not the case. To McCaskey’s surprise the parents lined up downhill and the teachers were uphill. First round the parents won. Next the teachers lined up downhill and the teachers won. The final match the parents were downhill and they won. After the contest there were shouts of cheer and jubilation. There was plenty of laughter and excitement. The occasion it dawned on McCaskey was not to see who is stronger, the occasion was how to generate an event that is going to be fun for both sides in which there is no loser.
“I hadn’t thought abut it this way. This is very different from the way Americans look at things. For me the incident opened my eyes to another way of thinking about sporting events,” CEO of the Chicago Bears explains.
“All of us who served as volunteers in Ethiopia felt like we learned a lot more from our stay there and from the people that we came to know and love, than we ever thought them. We are honored and privileged to have had the chance to serve there,” says McCaskey.
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